3. Because of a belief that individuals have a right to control information about their personal affairs, Switzerland has a strong human rights policy that protects financial privacy. In the United States, the government can look at your bank account and does not even need a search warrant.

4. Switzerland has a positive form of multiculturalism with people living together peacefully notwithstanding different languages and different religions. In the United States, by contrast, the government causes strife and resentment with a system of racial spoils.

5. Gun ownership is pervasive in Switzerland, and the Swiss people value this freedom. Moreover, how can one not admire a nation where all able-bodied males have fully automatic rifles in their homes? To be sure, the United States is very good by world standards in protecting this freedom, so the Swiss don’t really have an advantage on this issue, but it’s still worth mentioning.

Notwithstanding my admiration for Switzerland, there are five reasons why I don’t plan on expatriating.

1. I’m not rich and don’t particularly see how I will get rich anytime soon. Switzerland is not a cheap place to live.

2. It would be very time-consuming and expensive to go to Georgia Bulldog games, and I doubt the games would be on TV.

97 Responses

Very funny post! Myself I prefer South American & Caribbean to Switzerland because of the warmth and attractiveness of people here

In my opinion the Swiss confederation remained a true federal state because almost any law can be repealed by the people on referendum. The founding fathers of the american democracy feared too much the power of the people and because of that in the USA the political class is the one that makes the federal laws: The small colony -the USA- that became the world superpower at extreme speed in the 1800s with around 10% total government spending now has been turned, by the political class, into an european stagnated welfare state. US total government spending is around 40% of GDP and it is difficult to bring it down and it is crystal clear how government spending slows growth.

According to the report NH, SD and CO tend to be the freest parts of the US. As for weapons laws, they tend to be far more liberalized in the US than any other Western nation, including Switzerland. Heck, NH has far more liberal weapons laws. For example, the only state law applying to knifes that I know of is a prohibition on felons from owning them.

The firearms laws in NH, MT, WY, AK, ME, VT, ID and other states are also far more liberal than in Switzerland. In NH, a 14 year old can legally strap a pistol on their waist and walk around town, even go inside the police station or a church.

As for decentralization and voting on issues, I agree that Switzerland is way ahead of most US states. However, NH has a lower legislative chamber, the General Court, with 400 representatives. That is one for every 3000+ people in NH. Additionally, in the vast majority of towns, the voters vote on many issues, issue by issue.

Switzerland is surrounded by a hostile neighbor, the EU, who increasingly hates the Swiss not for what they do (they don’t bother anyone) but for who they are. I.e. a people freer than their EU counterparts who, in fine European collectivist tradition, have self-imposed on themselves mandated homogenizing, innovation stifling, participation into communal causes. By contrast, with much less collectivist burden, the Swiss people do have incentives to exceptional work (and exceptional work they do indeed) and thus enjoy a more vibrant economy, while the EU is well on its way to worldwide economic marginalization.

As the EU declines economically under the relentless compounding of endemic low personal incentives to excel and resultant sub par growth (1.5% vs. 4.5 for the world average), Europeans are likely to turn increasingly hostile and nasty towards their more successful and prosperous Swiss neighbors (declining empires tend to turn nasty in their death throws). Switzerland is now becoming a thorn on Europe’s side, a blatant counter-example to the European collectivist culture of redistribution and central planning. As the European culture of mandated compassion and central planning ironically leads to the cruel outcome of economic decline, under the relentless compounding of slow growth, Europe is bound to become ever more hostile towards its successful independent and freer neighbor.

If you have any doubts about the pressures Europe will apply to Switzerland look at the French “Competitiveness Pact” (no seriously that is what they called it) pushed on Ireland now that Europe managed to get Ireland under its thumb. The “French competitiveness pact” for Ireland and the rest of Europe is: “Increase Your Taxes”, presented, advertized and imposed with a straight face by a majority of French people through their elected president Mr. Sarkozy.

(*) I guess you can call it a competitiveness pact. They are competing who will manage to marginalize their economy faster in a world which growing at a 4.5% average is leaving Europe, growing at 1.5% average by an additional 3% points every year.

P.S. American readers: Guess who is about the follow the Europeans in their tracks (no pun on high-speed rail intended). As Europe shows,

The road to the cruelty of economic decline is paved with mandatory compassion
While the road to innovation stagnation is paved with central planning.

Mr Zorba: Many western european countries excel at having a political class that enslaves the people. They used to call it monarchy and now they call it socialism but in both cases a political class has insane power and turns people into its serfs.

Ultra democratic Switzerland since its birth fought those socialist/monarchic aristocracies and WON. Napoleon conquered Switzerland and tried to institute the “Helvetic Republic” ( *BARF* *VOMIT*) but was chased very fast by the Swiss who quickly reestablished their awesome confederation. They say that Hitler left Switzerland alone because he wanted to keep money there . I think that is garbage, Hitler simply could not defeat the mighty Swiss army that works under a militia system. The Swiss government is the strongest in the world because it really has the support of the people and a similar thing happens in the USA. The swiss inflicted at least one big defeat to the nazis. Socialists do not like to admit that countries were the people has real power -Switzerland and the USA- are much better at war than socialists

I think the national SOCIALIST mass murderocracy never attacked much the Swiss because it knew it could never defeat the Swiss army. And we know that the US democracy gave a MASSIVE defeat to the alleged “super mighty” national SOCIALIST army

Dictatorship is the cause of war because democracies never wage war among themselves. If the ultra murderous national SOCIALIST Germany could never conquer Germany then the current democratic Germany is even less capable of conquering Switzerland.

The left has been selling lies for milleniums: It is pretty clear that communism was the political class sadistically murdering and robbing the owners of capital and enslaving everybody else but mainstream academia and media are so corrupt that they succesfully sold the lie that “the people” wanted the bolshevik mass murders, that “the people” wanted the european tax hells, etc, etc. But it is pretty clear that “the people”, when it has power, chooses capitalism, freedom and be a tax haven like the USA and Switzerland which, according to Mr. Mitchell, are the biggest tax havens in the world.

Isn’t that kinda relative? Like working on Wall Street earns you the kind of money you need to have an office in Manhattan?

I figured the same would apply here. In that anyone worth their salt would be able to support themselves almost anywhere.

Well that is, anywhere they are not being screwed by oppressive taxation and/or rules.

And isn’t this the exact point we Libertarians are trying to make? That the situation of the so-called “poor” in a Free Market environment, is not the same as the plight of plebes under an oppressive state system?

Posting 3 comments is an abuse, but I absolutely must correct a mistake: I meant that National SOCIALIST Germany -a dictatorship, therefore it DOES WAGE war- could not conquer SWITZERLAND. Democratic Germany -a democracy, therefore it DOES NOT wage war on another democracy- is then much less likely to conquer Switzerland than the brutal & murderous Nazi dictatorship.

In the USA the people cannot limit -with referendums- the power of the federal government while in many US states the people can limit -with referendums- the power of the state political class.

So it is not surprising that most of the oppression in the USA comes from the not limited by referendum federal government; Look how Mr Mitchell signals that in the USA 2/3 of government spending -the amount of government spending is a good measure of the level of oppressive power that the political class has- comes from Washington (the US federal government). But in Switzerland only 1/3 of spending comes from the limited by referendum swiss federal government.

Before deciding on a new constitution a while back, the Swiss studied the US system, used the best parts, and revised the others. So the Swiss system is more or less an updated version of the US federal constitution with more of the benefits and very few drawbacks.

Frances Kendall and Leon Louw (see the FMF at http://www.freemarketfoundation.com) wrote a book about the Swiss system called: South Africa, the Solution. They were twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their outstanding efforts.

The system they propose would form a brilliant solution to the current European Union problems.

But would any European politicians allow the benefits of prosperity and limited government to override the loss of centralized power that they all seem to be both pursuing and yet trying to avoid?

[…] one final philosophical/policy point: In an ideal world, the United States would be like Switzerland and have a much more robust version of federalism. Almost everything that happens in Washington, […]

[…] one final philosophical/policy point: In an ideal world, the United States would be like Switzerland and have a much more robust version of federalism. Almost everything that happens in Washington, […]

You do realize that Switzerland does not have a standing army, instead opting for a people’s militia for its national defense.

Every able bodied man between the ages of 20 and 30 are conscripted into the militia and undergo military training, including weapons training.

The personal weapons of the militia are kept at home as part of the military obligations; Switzerland thus has one of the highest militia gun ownership rates in the world.

In October 2007, the Swiss Federal Council decided that the distribution of ammunition to soldiers shall stop and that all previously issued ammo shall be returned. By March 2011, more than 99% of the ammo has been received. Only special rapid deployment units and the military police still have ammunition stored at home today.

So, while there may be guns in most houses, there is no ammunition with the guns.

The sale of ammunition is subsidized by the Swiss government and made available at the many shooting ranges patronized by both private citizens and members of the militia. There is a regulatory requirement that ammunition sold at ranges must be used there.

[…] approach to government is more efficient, something our forefathers generally understood. Switzerland has the strongest system of federalism in the world, and it is doing very well by all standards. Canada also has a decentralized system […]

[…] approach to government is more efficient, something our forefathers generally understood. Switzerland has the strongest system of federalism in the world, and it is doing very well by all standards. Canada also has a decentralized system […]

I am an American and have lived in Switzerland for 20 years. I agree with the author’s reasons for wanting to stay in the U.S., especially since it is cold, gloomy or rainy about 10 months of the year! However, as someone opposed to relaxed gun controls, let me point out that not every male owns a gun in Switzerland. Only Swiss citizens, male or female, who have served in the Swiss Army ( which is still mandatory), have guns, but they are only issued bullets when on active duty. Other Swiss or non-Swiss may have weapons, but I just want to set the record straight that not every man, because he lives in CH, automatically gets a gun.

[…] P.S. It’s rather appropriate that I’m writing about federalism since I’m now in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the 2013 Liberty Conference and Switzerland is probably the world’s best example of genuine federalism. […]

[…] P.S. It’s rather appropriate that I’m writing about federalism since I’m now in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the 2013 Liberty Conference and Switzerland is probably the world’s best example of genuine federalism. […]

[…] P.S. It’s rather appropriate that I’m writing about federalism since I’m now in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the 2013 Liberty Conference and Switzerland is probably the world’s best example of genuine federalism. […]

[…] the plan. And I pointed out that Switzerland’s comparatively successful system is a result of not letting government have too much power over the economy.But I don’t want to focus today on the Swiss referendum. Instead, I want to […]

[…] Decentralization – The second possibility is for Ukraine to copy the Swiss model of radical decentralization. In Switzerland, even though there are French cantons, German cantons, and an Italian canton, the […]

Switzerland is not the United States: they have a gun culture that is very different from what we have here. In Switzerland, “gun ownership is deeply rooted in a sense of patriotic duty and national identity. Weapons are kept at home because of the long-held belief that enemies could invade tiny Switzerland quickly, so every soldier had to be able to fight his way to his regiment’s assembly point. (Switzerland was at risk of being invaded by Germany during World War II but was spared, historians say, because every Swiss man was armed and trained to shoot.)”

In other words, the Swiss see guns as a means to PROTECT their country. That’s not why people in the US have guns.

In Switzerland, all military ammunition must be stored in central arsenals rather than in soldiers’ homes.

One of the reasons the crime rate in Switzerland is low despite the prevalence of weapons — and also why the Swiss mentality can’t be transposed to the current American reality — is the culture of responsibility and safety that is anchored in society and passed from generation to generation.

Your 5th reason for not wanting to expatriate makes me think that you would be interested in the info on either of these 3 sites: committee.org , outpost-of-freedom.com , and thelastbastille.wordpress.com

I sincerely hope you don’t consider this as “Spam”.. my patriotic impulses lead me to believe that it is necessary to bring the American people “Under One Banner” in an effort to restore constitutional government to these once united states.

Thanks for your consideration.
I am here obviously because we have similar feelings towards Switzerland and the U.S.
And by googling ” what is difference between the two” I ended up here!🙂